DEPICTING THE BALKANS IN TRAVEL WRITING: PAST AND PRESENT PERSPECTIVES

This paper analyzes the representation of the Balkans in travel writing through two perspectives. The first one looks at the colonial discourse and gaze of the earlier 19th century travelogues. The second looks into contemporary travelogues to see if they moved away from the colonial/orientalist logic of the superior, Western, enlightened traveler who observes the passive, inferior cultures and places. To do this, the paper analyzes several earlier, mainly 19th and early 20th century travelogues about the Balkans predominantly written by women. It then compares them with contemporary travel works, the main focus being placed on the writings of Chris Deliso. His travelogues of Macedonia (since February 2019 referred to as the Republic of North Macedonia after a long name dispute with Greece), abandon the pretentious, colonial and orientalist approach of earlier travel literature and instead show enthusiasm to engage with local narratives and histories. In that sense, the paper argues that the contemporary travel accounts part with the colonial logic of a superior traveler who observes the wild, undeveloped places and people, very characteristic of the earlier travel literature. Yet, at certain times they also fall in the same trap of siding with one culture or ethnic group while stereotyping others. Secondly, this paper questions the concept of ‘women’s travel writing’ as naive and politically disengaged, and shows that both men’s and women’s travelogues are prone to bias and partiality depending on the geopolitical agenda that the traveler favors or represents. As such, they have and still continue to play an important role in creating and perpetuating particular images about the places they write about, in this case, the Balkans.